It's all about You(Tube)

03/01/2011

Every day, hundreds of thousands of hours of footage are uploaded to YouTube. So it was probably only a matter of time before somebody had the bright idea of stitching some of it together to make a feature film.

But you might not have expected it to be a proper, well-known director. But it is. Director Kevin MacDonald, best known for The Last King Of Scotland, is the brains behind Life In A Day, a film made entirely from footage submitted by YouTube users. MacDonald asked the YouTube community to film themselves going about their day on July 24, 2010. Incredibly, over 80,000 clips were submitted to his team, all of which had to be watched and, if selected for inclusion, edited down.

To ensure the film covered the whole of the human experience, the team distributed 400 cameras to remote parts of the world. For the most part, A Life In A Day will be footage of people going about their ordinary business. But, MacDonald told the BBC, July 24 happened to be the day of the disastrous Love Parade in Berlin where many revelers were crushed, so the film will include some footage of the event.

It's too late to submit a clip now, but you can see A Life In A Day soon - at least, if you can make it to America's Sundance Film Festival...